Is this 2017’s most audacious movie? A Ghost Story (M)
87 mins ★★★★1⁄2
David Lowery’s meditative romantic drama is bewildering and beguiling in equal measures.
What other movie this year dares to place Oscar’s reigning best actor winner under a sheet for most of the running time, or spend five minutes watching a terrific young Hollywood actress devour a family-sized pie? And yet somehow for all that craziness still leave a good chunk of cinemagoers haunted by it for days.
The low-budget tale that the New Zealand-shot Pete’s Dragon (Lowrey’s last project) helped fund, A Ghost Story is a slow-burning study of grief and despair.
Like Truly Madly Deeply and Ghost, it posits what happens when one-half of a couple has shuffled off this mortal coil. But instead of pottery or musical sessions with his mates, Casey Affleck’s songwriter instead can only watch as his beloved (Rooney Mara) attempts to deal with life without him. Time inevitable moves on, but while she shifts out, he’s left trapped in their house frustrated as others invade and transform ‘‘their’’ space. When he realises he can make an impact after all, he begins a reign of terror, hoping to drive them out, but will that bring him the peace that might finally give him release?
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s short story A Haunted House, A Ghost Story feels like one of the most intimate pieces of moviemaking in years.
While the discussions about the science of mass extinction and the enduring power of art won’t be for everyone, it’s actually in the wordless moments that Lowery’s film threatens to overwhelm you.
Throw in an impressive atmospheric soundtrack by Lowery’s regular collaborator Daniel Hart and the result is a reminder of the power of cinema to move viewers and make you ‘‘feel’’ something.– James Croot